The Lower East Side and especially Tompkins Square Park has been on fire lately. Such a great variety of style is blooming in the park right now.

This is Claire. She is wearing a hand-me-down dress from her mother. I love the wispy little summer dresses that are starting to appear but a more tailored, shaped dress like this is sooo flattering. To me this is vintage at its best; it draws inspiration from the past without feeling “costumey.”

I saw my friend Alessandra when I was in Milan last week. As you can see, her style has evolved from a sportier gamine aesthetic to a more languid bohemian-femme mood.

What I love about her look here is that even though her dress is a casual cotton dress that could be bought anywhere (and in a wide range of fabrics and prices), she still finishes off the look with very special details.

You know what else I love about this look? I know a lot of girls would throw on a big cotton dress like this and call it done…almost a “fashion day-off.” Alessandra, however, adds a dramatic necklace and a thoughtfully executed hairstyle and it elevates the entire look. The hair in this look is so important. I think the reason the girls I saw in Savannah looked so great, even as casually dressed college kids, was because they all seemed to have great hairstyles.

I think this shot is a great example of clothes as a plain canvas for the fashion in the rest of the look…as roasted chicken is to a complicated French sauce.

George from Cleverley sent me these snapshots of my cordovan shoes in progress.

I’m both excited and nervous about having them finished. The design process is a lot like making a photograph – technically, it’s not that difficult – however, does the finished image/product convey what you originally envisioned?

I want these shoes to look great with grey flannels but also dark navy denim. The more I think about it, the success will lie in the sole of the shoe (wow, that’s kind of a play on words). If the sole is too thin and refined it will miss the ruggedness that is a hallmark of cordovan. If the sole is too thick and clunky (which is currently the trend) it will miss the whole reason for creating my own vision. Even though the process is more than halfway done, it seems the most tricky decisions are yet to be made.

I’ll keep you posted.

The cordovan leather specially ordered for this pair of shoes. I was nervous about finding the perfect color, but we were able to nail it.

My father is a gentleman, brought up in an era when one dressed for occasion and where clothes were cared for and tended. This photo was taken about 1954 when he was posted to Japan in order to assist with the return of Australian troops from Korea. My mother, not wanting to miss out on the adventure, jumped on a freighter and managed to get herself to Hiru where they found a traditional Japanese house and embraced the experience together. I should add that my parents were extremely tall for their generation, my father at 6’2″ and my mother 5′ 10″ so they would have created a stir within the local community in which they lived so perhaps he felt he could be bold in a foreign land.

I saw this gentleman playing basketball yesterday at Tompkins Square Park.

The mix of the black tights, the long (almost skirtlike) shorts, the wave cap pulled tight over a low bun at the base of his neck, the tight white tank, had me thinking more of a Givenchy Men’s collection than the Knicks. I mean really, just change his tank to a white poplin shirt and it could be a Rick Owens or Raf Simons look.

I’ve always said that sports is at the forefront of what “real men” (read: macho men) would wear. There’s a very simple reason…men will do or wear anything to win a game.

They will shave off all their body hair, they will wear skintight lycra bodysuits, they will wear shorts that look like skirts if they think it will help them win or fit in with the team.

I know a lot of young designers and design students look at the site. A great self-challenge is to step outside of the fashion world and go to a basketball game or football game without any preconceived notions and just see it for the actual design elements. The advanced sport-specific fabrics, the color themes of team jerseys, the proportions, the graphics; they all are fertile material for modern design inspiration.

I remember back in the Eighties, football players like running back Greg Pruitt of the Browns wore tear-away jerseys. They would go through several jerseys a game. Just imagine how Goth Warrior those guys looked in there heavily padded uniforms with jerseys covered in slashes, tears, and gaping holes. Just think how those uniforms helped reinforce the imagery of alpha masculinity that they wanted to portray.

As I was working of this photo it reminded me of a shot I took in Sodermalm, Stockholm a few years ago. This shot is evidence of the very direct influnce sports can have on even the most advanced street/runway looks.